The Last of Us: Remastered is much more than a normal HD remake

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If you haven’t gotten around to playing The Last of Us on the PS3 and were waiting for either the console to drop in price, or for a friend to get a PS4 so you can borrow his PS3 already, you might want to just pick up The Last of Us: Remastered edition releasing for the PS4 at the end of this month.

Rather than receiving the simple HD remake treatment that was so popular last generation, this remastered edition brings so much more to the table. In fact, the new additions are so copious that those of you who played the original PS3 version of the game will want to seriously consider playing it again on the PS4.

The most noticeable additions to Remastered are the DLC packs that released for the PS3 — both multiplayer packs, and the excellent single-player campaign Left Behind. Mysteriously, there is more add-on content planned for 2014. The add-on content is cross-buy between the PS3 and PS4, so you won’t have to worry if you want to mix and match consoles and content. Remastered also brings a commentary track with game-runner Neil Druckmann, and Joel and Ellie’s voice actors, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson.

As for the actual remastering, the PS4 version brings a 1080p resolution running at 60 fps, texture maps are four times more detailed and shadow maps are two times more detailed, there will be higher resolution particle effects, and occlusion mapping on decals. There will also be a longer draw distance, better level of detail (objects farther away will look better), and no texture streaming. Remastered will also provide more audio options, players can lock the frames per second to 30, and DualShock 4 improvements — such as the light bar, touch pad, and speaker — will be utilized. You’ll also be able to swap the trigger and thumbstick control settings.

The Last of Us: Remastered is more than your cash-in HD remake, and if you didn’t play it the first time around or have been thinking about experiencing the game all over again, it looks like this will be the definitive version.